MatchBridge Director Matt Poland was invited to be a “citizen blogger” for the Bay Citizen news website. Here is an excerpt from his first blog post, “Why Aren’t Our Youth Working?”

Some youth graduating from high schools and going on to universities this year are going to discover in four years that a Bachelor’s degree by itself does not qualify them for a good job, as it may have at one time. Unless there are significant changes to the way our labor market works, youth who are in poverty and have other barriers to employment and education will have an even harder time.

There have been expanded efforts by nonprofits and government over the last 40-plus years to provide “safety-net” services to youth and those in need through job training, summer internship programs, employment preparation and job placement services. Yet 2010 was one of the worst summers on record for young job seekers, with over 50% unemployment among those 16-24 according to recent labor market information (see this USA Today article referencing BLS data).

Why? Because we have not yet made private-sector businesses full partners in our workforce development efforts. It’s a simple equation: A functional labor market + government investment + nonprofit services = low unemployment. It’s not government investment and nonprofit services that are causing this equation to fail; it is the lack of a functional labor market.

Read the rest of Matt’s post on The Bay Citizen web site.